Albert Jans is walking Te Araroa Trail and is doing Walk1200km to be part of a community of people getting active.

Albert Jans will have no problem walking 1200km in a year; he plans to walk 2000km in the next few months. 

Albert started Te Araroa Trail in October after discovering the benefits of daily exercise and exploring sections of the trail from his Kerikeri home. 

“I started a 75-day programme, doing two workouts a day and I really enjoyed it,” he says. “I did two 45 minute walks each day. In the end, I lost 18kg and really noticed an improvement in the clarity of my thinking and my friends were commenting how much I’d changed. When I finished the programme, I wanted to continue on with something in a group that had the same mentality, so when I heard about Walk1200km I thought, ‘I’ll do that’.”

The 62-year-old also decided to do the Te Araroa Trail and was five days into the walk when he spoke to Wilderness after having walked from Cape Reinga to Kaitaia, walking up to 31km each day.

“I’ll do the 1200km by default doing Te Araroa, but I like the community of it and people talking about their progress and supporting each other,” he says.

Albert plans to walk as far as Uretiti Beach, south of Whangarei, before deciding how to navigate around Auckland’s lockdown. 

“I’d really like to do the whole trail in one season, but we’ll just have to see what happens.

“Being out in the bush each day you leave all those worries behind and just enjoy the moment.”

Have you signed up to do the Walk1200km challenge? Register here.